Dear Mr. President,
Thank-you for further supporting the initiative to cancel the debt of the world’s poorest countries and raising the United States of America’s financial support of relief aid for Malaria, AIDS and extreme poverty. It was drawn to my attention in Time Magazine that you have tripled America’s support for Africa, an action unparalleled by any other President in our history. For that I am appreciative.
However, Mr. President, it means nothing if we do not follow through on the promises made at the G-8 conference in Gleneagle, Scotland.
Over the course of your Presidency you seem to have always done what you said you were going to do. Like any good Texan/American, once your mind is set on something, that something gets done. I pray your conviction is the same for relieving the debt in Africa and fighting AIDS and Malaria.
Also Mr. President, I pray you rethink the Kyoto Protocol. God has made America a beautiful place and already our National Parks are suffering because of our lack of concern for the environment. No longer do they allow camp fires at Grand Canyon National Park and Yosemite National Park has a limit to the amount of traffic it can allow during the summer months. Both of these are because of the air pollution from our cars and factories across America. If God has created this country beautiful is it not our duty to care for it in such a way as to preserve that beauty for his glory?
You may have said that to sign the treaty would cause harm to the economy. I understand that politically it is not a great idea. You do not want to leave a legacy of recession and the tension of an already slow economy has been the root of some of the chief criticism of your Presidency.
Yet you have defined your Presidency as a President who does what he feels is the right thing to do and does what he feels God has called him to do. Even though in some areas I may not agree with how you have carried this out, I respect the fact that you are willing to stand for what is right.
Is it right to sacrifice the beauty of our country for economic stability? Is it right to compromise nature preserves to save a few dollars at the gas station? If God has given to America one of the most beautiful places on earth in all its incredible diversity of desert and mountains, oceans and the Great Lakes, the plains, the wetlands, the badlands and even the cold lands as far as Alaska, is it not our job, our duty to take care of these gifts in such a way that we can be proud to return them to the creator, that is Christ Jesus, when he returns. Because when I look around I am afraid that I am ashamed with how America treats its natural resources both here and around the world.
It may be bad for our economy, but we are the wealthiest nation in the world, it seems, if the environment were any kind of priority, we could afford to take care of our earth. Not only that, by signing the Kyoto Protocol, you restore our solidarity with the other nations, improving our international reputation and quenching the angry thirst of people possibly taking their first steps to a life of terrorism because it seems that America simply does not listen. Trust their scientists when they talk about greenhouse gasses, Mr. President, if only to tell the world that we do indeed listen to their concerns and will act with them to improve the world instead of acting without them to protect our own selfish economic interests.
My greatest fear, Mr. President, is not terrorism. My greatest fear is God’s judgment for not being a steward of the incredible wealth he has given us. As the biblical story proves, when a country fails to grant justice to the poor and the environment God’s judgment follows and not even America could withstand that all consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29).
Finally, I know your time is extremely limited but I have included with this document a copy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s speech Beyond Vietnam. I hope you read it and reread it and I pray the question you ask when you’re finished reading and for the rest of your Presidency is this: How do we love our enemies the way Jesus calls us to love our enemies?
Thank you for your time and may God bless America.
Respectfully,
Jeremy T. Heyboer
encl.
A copy of this letter is posted on my blog http://greensummerlawn.blogspot.com.
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